LG to return to the Windows Phone 8 fold in 2013? Korea Times says yes.

Could LG be releasing some new Windows Phone 8 hardware this year? According to the Korea Times, citing a senior executive from one of LG’s local partners, the answer is ‘yes’.

The paper reveals the tidbit under the bigger news of LGs ambitions for 2013, including the goal of selling 75 million handsets, which is no small feat even with Android seemingly doing so well.

LG famously had cold feet with Microsoft last year over the new OS and although they were initially expected to release new hardware they backed out. That was even after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer reportedly try to persuade the massive Korean company otherwise.

LG even went so far as to experiment with near-field communication (NFC) in a Windows Phone 7.5 device called the LG Fantasy (E740), which we reviewed in May of last year. That device was evidently cancelled even though Sprint was rumored to be one possible candidate for the phone.

The news itself is almost buried without any fanfare in the article, though a quote is directly given to the on the subject:

“We will release quite a number of new Optimus devices this year and LG also has some new smartphones in the works, that will run Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8.’’

That’s a shift from an earlier strategy from September when LG CEO Park Jong Seok stated that LG has "no specific plans for other mobile platforms." Before that statement, LG was quoted by the Korea Herald that they were abandoning Microsoft because "The total unit of Windows Phone sold in the global market is not a meaningful figure."

We’ve given LG some flak around these parts in the past for two reasons: their unremarkable second set of devices for Windows Phone 7 and their sudden abandonment of the platform, despite the OEM benefits found with the new OS e.g. more hardware choices, better API access.

We’ll be more than glad to evaluate what LG can bring to the table if they choose to return to the platform, but our sights are on other OEMs at the moment to lead the way for Microsoft. Currently, LG is enjoying some heightened media scrutiny due to their Google branded LG Nexus 4, considered to represent the "true" Google mobile experience.

Reader comments

LG to return to the Windows Phone 8 fold in 2013? Korea Times says yes.

I have zero interest in buying anything from an electronics company that's first name is "Lucky", the Goldstar boys can do what they like but even the palm pre was better build quality than the vx series.

good ol' Wikipedia:
"In 1995, to compete better in the Western market, the Lucky-Goldstar Corporation was renamed "LG", (the abbreviation of "Lucky-Goldstar"). The company also associates the letters LG with the company's tagline "Life's Good", which is actually a backronym. Since 2009, LG has owned the domain name LG.com."

I think lg has gotten better. I mean look at the Optimus g and the nexus 4, they are great phones. I had a lg Vu once, and it sucked. That's what got me into iOS, then I got a Dvp, a 900, and now a 920.

The biggest selling point it had was its low price, that doesn't speak well about the rest of the device.
And it was in short quantities over its lifespan, was this for reasons like Nokia who are cash constrained and could not afford a possible failure?
Or was it because the margins were wafer thin, so apart from the publicity the Google cooperation gives them the device was simply not profitable? My guess is the latter.

Lol! HammeredPizza, what awards? Those reviewing the Nexus 4 were fans of Android sans skins.

The Nexus 4 itself, from an aesthetic point of view, was one of the most drab looking devices ever put on the market; and no - having been made of glass didn't give it any class or quality. It was simply drab.

And their WP devices weren't fantastic looking either, although the Optimus 7 was more attractive looking than the Quantum, in my opinion.

Have you tried the Nexus 4? Like extensively? There's nothing particularly wrong with it, it's just not amazing. It's a big, plastic black phone with a nice screen.

It will never win an award for design because it's generic as hell. Besides some of the specs (except the no LTE part), it's nothing remarkable. Like I said, not saying it's a bad device but it's merely an evolution from the Nexus 3 (Samsung), which I own. Feels very similar.

But it's night and day between it and say the Lumia 920 and 8x in terms of looks. I stand by that and it has nothing to do with attacking me. In other words, fucking deal with it. I don't care for the Nexus 4.

Wow... somebody's peed in your bowl of cornflakes today haven't they Daniel? I personally don't care for the Nexus 4 (I'm a WP man myself) but some of your language... I'd say it defeats the purpose of what Dave is trying to achieve.

Oh please. If it was a Windows Phone 8 device you would be raving about it. The LG Optimus G, which the Nexus 4 is based on, has all sorts of excellent properties. I probably wouldn't use the word amazing but it is certainly more amazing than the L920 or HTC 8x you fanboys seem to have no problem calling special or amazing.

First things first, the screen uses LG displays', a subsidiary of LG inc, in cell touch technology and is one of the most impressive and thinness displays created. Don't take more word for it though, go check out a demo yourself and use one of the wallpapers LG included to show off the display. I am not a fan of Apple but they are even impressed enough to buy this technology off of LG, not Nokia or HTC.
Second, they also use LG chemicals' battery technology that increases the recharge life span by double for the battery which is 2100mp.

Third, it doubles the WP8 devices in both CPU/GPU and ram. The qualcomm S4 pro >>>> the Qualcomm S4 in your Windows Phone devices.

Fourth, they managed to cram the best out of all the LG branches into a form factor that is way more compact than any high end WP8 device. The LG Optimus G is wider than the HTC 8x but it is shorter, much thinner, and has a much bigger screen and battery. The Nexus 4 is a little thicker due to the charging plate but manages to stay much more compact than the L920 and even manages to fit a bigger screen.

As far as looks, that is pretty subjective but I personally think that the Sony Xperia S, Sony Xperia Z, LG Optimus G, and Nexus 4 are pretty much the 4 best looking phones out there today. The N9 looks pretty nice too but if the Nexus 4 is hardly compelling looking, then the WP8 phones are hardly compelling looking and look way too big and fruity.
haha Fan boy.

Tomatoes are you for real?
I'm a fan of LG. They certainly treated me very well when I had a returns issue in the UK. And I loved my LG Optimus 7. But you know the 920 has a super sensitve touch display you can use with gloves? And clearblack? Honesly, arguiging about screen tech these days, is arguiing about degrees of nothing - they are all fabulous. Even the much maligned Lumia 820 screen is lovely to look at, as my GF has one, its good.
The Nexus 4 might have a Pro S4, but Windows Phone 8 devices will get new CPUs on the next iteration in a few months, thats timing around SoC release - not a technical innovation. And again, only spec wheenies talk about CPU, as these things are already powerful enough for most people (in fact I'd argue we should dial the power down and get better battery life - but hey ho)
Size? You do know that the consensus is bigger is better in devices? What you call too large is what everyone wants. This is in large part due to the fact that smartphones can be peoples only computing device. In fact, without gaming, I would probably get rid of my PC and just use my Xbox and phone (can't kick the BF3 habbit)
So 3 areas left to debate.
BATTERY
LOOKS
ADDITIONAL FEATURES.

Battery, I agree, this is a huge practical issue. But despite your raving about battery tech, there is little to choose between batteries and is mostly just a matter of size/mah.
Additional features. This is where it gets interesting, I think the OIS in the Lumia 920 and its low light ability are amazing. This is real innovation. To dimiss the real practical usefulness of that versus screen tech that most people wouldn't even notice is laughable.
OR how about Beat Audio (not just a gimmick) in the 8x, with its own dedicated audio chip? Again for some people that is really useful. Even if its not a grandstanding feature.
Then we come to looks. You seem hung up on size. But I can tell you that the Lumias overall build quality are excellent. It makes Samsung generic devices feel plasticky and cheap.
Even my GF 820 is amazingly solid, like you could run your car over it.
Not compelling to look at? Californian blue? THat 8x in dayglo yellow? Vs boring Silver or matt black devices?
I can't quite tell if you are being sarcastic but you have to be at least joking?
I can only assume your an MS hater, who went missing from Engadgets comment area :)

Lol everything you say is pretty pointless since I've actually used the two (920 and n4) side by side your battery tech sucks my 920 lasts three times as long as your precious n4. Terms of looks I stand behind mediocre, since your referring to our phones as fruity I can only assume your not that comfortable with color, either that or yourself. Being a fan boy has nothing to do with facts. I'm a WP fan and I love the galaxy truth is the nexus 4 falls flat as a flagship and you probably own one and that's why your offended by what Daniel is saying. He's not wrong but its also his opinion, I'm assuming you know what that is since you seem to have many of your own. Non expandable storage with sixteen at the helm? The screen falls flat to my 920 in daylight reading. And speaking of fruity idk if your aware but the nexus is sparkly lol nuff said. I say let HTC or Samsung make it or don't. There's a reason in terms of android Samsung takes it.

And the word is, like many phones today, good battery performance but not great. That's the whole problem with the N4 as a flagship and reference phone, it's a "meh". One notable thing about it though is in the looks department - it's ugly.

@tomatoes11 What's your address...I want to know where to send this box of tissues for your tears.

For the record, I'm using WhatsApp now instead of Kik. The latest update has finally made it quite usable and the notifications/push alerts have been reliable.It still took way to long for WhatsApp to become usable/acceptable though, imo. I still stand by that and will give companies criticism when they fail to achieve--that's my job here.

I also never said I hated the Nexus 4, I just wasn't impressed by it. But I suppose it's easier to set up a straw man for your fight, eh?

I don't care what phone they release, I won't be buying any LG in the future no matter OS it runs. The lack of support shows they don't care about the customer. Once you buy their phone, you're on your own.

Yup! They can keep all their junk. After working for a wireless company for the last 5 years, I've learned to stay away from LG. Their phones always seem to get the most complaints. Life is good without LG. :-p

blackhawk556...I wouldn't purchase anything (phone, or any electronics) from LG, but I realize some people are fans of LG and their phones. What was especially off putting about LG is, shortly after WP7 was released, and LG saw that they had very poor sales, they (LG) blamed WP7! LG took no thought about their responsibility is the lack of sales of their WP devices - they did zilch marketing, and didn't bring both of their devices to all markets to allow for consumers to choose between a touchscreen or a physical QWERTY device. Zilch marketing!

Even their Android device sales were poor relative to other Android OEM's at that time, and even today; yet they blamed WP and Microsoft for low sales instead of acknowledging or admitting that they were responsible for the low sales of their devices by not promoting them. It was a cop out, and behavior such as that does not deserve respect or support; but to each his/her own.

For the record @Hammered Pizza ill use one of the doom and gloom wp commentors own words on you. reviews are one thing, if im not mistaken people since its inception have given windows phone awesome reviews and they are still clinging to only 3-4% marketshare. The Lumia series has won design awards and wp has won awards for the uniqueness of the OS. To put it bluntly daniel isnt right because hes a driving force for wp but because in reality yes the device is plain boring and nothing to rave about in terms of storage network speeds or quality. the samsung galaxy s3 blows it out of the water the droid razor maxx/HD/M kill it, the note 2 devours it hell even the original note kills it. the nexus 4 is a failed attempt by LG and google to take awareness off of the S3 thats how i see it and thats how everyone i know who uses an android sees it. ive used every platform so i know a worthwhile android from a cheap hack at it.. my friends nexus 4 even came with significant call quality issues and hes a diehard android head, and acknowledged it. theres nothing compelling enough about the nexus 4 that makes me go ooooo i want it i want it. and if you want i could name 10-15 devices that are all much nicer looking and better quality android phones than the nexus. the quality of the nexus phones has not been the same since the nexus one/s galaxy nexus to me wasnt that great besides the texas instruments chip and the nexus 4 is a nuisance.

The more OEMs the better but LGs efforts for WP were incredibly lackluster to say the least. Let's hope that if they do come back that they can bring out something that is at least on par with their Android offerings.

Totally agree. Although I have to say, Samsung's efforts for WP8 had been quite lackluster too. The Samsung ATIV S had hardly any major selling points compared to Nokia and HTC's current WP8 flagships (let's not even mention that it's not available in the US yet). The ATIV Odyssey is also a lackluster mid-range phone.

If they're going to only produce WP8 phones at par with their Android offerings, then I say no thank you. There's nothing compelling about their Android phones so if the only thing they are going to do is put WP8 in those, they are DOA.

They did and it was called the Quantum. Unfortunately, WP7 at release was a worthless piece of shit so sales were miniscule. Now that WP has matured some my hopes are high that LG will bring something good to the table for us.

Let's face it, we're all tech geeks to be on these boards. On that note, I'll agree that the Quantum was an interesting device. If memory serves me correctly, you could use the onboard reg edit and de-brand, interop unlock, change MMS settings and so forth. With LG's flash tool it was a breeze to flash the Telstra ROM and have Mango & internet sharing without AT&T's grubby hands in your pockets. I can't think of any other device you could do that with. If only it had a 4" screen.

If LG goes the Nokia/HTC route and develops some exclusive hardware to WP then I think this would be great for the platform. Otherwise, if they just make a WP version of a existing Android device,, well, I guess the more the merrier, but we really need something special from these guys or it's really not worth the effort.

Honestly, I have the LG Optimus 7, and I TRULY love this phone. The only thing that bothers the living shnitzel out of me is 1) This whole rumor about LG not providing 7.8 when to my understanding it was Microsoft who will send the update, 2) really lack of support towards the OS the whole way. Although, I've got to say, they did do a cool firmware update which lets you click on the solid windows key to turn the screen on. It's a mostly a hit for me and works, but sometimes it doesnt work :P but still cool. Either way, I've learnt that HTC and Nokia are the safest OEMS out there. Smart companies with solid phones, it's the truth.

Um, HTC is like the worse OEM and Nokia seems to be taking tips from them with all the Lumia 920 problems. The only one you can really trust these days is Samsung. LG Optimus G and Nexus 4 are pretty nice too but that is because they used all of their manufacturing resources on it and the returns probably do not justify that they do it again this year.

My friend had an LG Android Optimus it only lasted less than a year and it brick on him. That is good anyway because he like my HTC Radar and purchased one for himself. He still has it and just waiting to get all the bugs out of Windows Phone 8 and will be getting a Nokia 810 like mine. I think this is the easy way to convert people to Windows Phone let LG manufacture more Android crap.

Samsung also have their own problems, there are users of S3 who also complain. None of these companies are perfect. IMO Windows Phone, the right one to go for is always Nokia for all those extra exclusive content unless there are other factors more important to you, like SD card slot.
I actually dislike Samsung's attitude with Windows Phone, they are not really promoting them. In my country, they are selling them but they dont have a review unit at all but all android models down to the budget Galaxy Y have a review unit. Samsung is just a "me too!" company, others make one, they make one too. You dont see them put up ads for windows phone either. They are like the Jack of all trades, master of none to me - they develop all those powerful processors and stuff it into their phone because they have the resources - they make everu electronic item you can think of and they also have their own plastic factory, thats all. I dont see anything groundbreaking by them.

I scour all the forums a lot and the GS3 complaints are far lower than any other phone, which is quite impressive considering there are 40 million of them out there. In fact, the Samsung haters are so desperate, the best they can come up with is totally subjective. i.e Touchwiz sucks looks like a cartoon or there are too many features. Or SamSuck and their cheap plasticky phones or GS3 is fugly pebble looking.

Again, hardly anything that you can submit to a fact sheet or a court room. Compared to the Nokia L920 rebooting, overheating, bluetooth issues, battery drains. You know, things that you can actually measure and quantify.

the more OEMs the better for WP. I say welcome back LG :-). I hope LG start hardware from the ground up like what HTC did with their WPs. and make their LG Wp8 device compete directly with Nokia and HTC and Samsung. the more WP competition the better :-)

haha LG phones back in the day were pretty bad. The build quality was really lackluster, but damn my LG hdtv is still going. That is the one thing I will concede. I gave their phones more than enough chances back in the day, heck I even gave it one more chance with the chocolate or whatever it was called. Call quality was soft and speaker phone unuseable, my keypad even broke. Dropped calls like none other. But the new phones they are coming out with show some promise, the one thing I liked was that Windows phone 8 is really picking up steam now, which is pretty damn cool.

I say welcome back LG, but you do have something to prove now. A lacklustre Windows Phone will sink like it was never there and frankly Microsoft deserve better from you than a reworked Android phone for the low end.
Two devices please: A radical, high-end device to get you some headlines and a low-end/medium range device for the numbers. And then SUPPORT please.

Last year they said WP wasn't a big enough market to both with, now Nokia has had some success they are hastily scurrying back.
I do fear a little for the people who buy their devices here, they don't have a glowing reputation with Android, and if they support them as poorly in the past then they could actually be giving people who switch to WP a negative impression of the platform.

I wonder how long it will take them abandon WP users this time. It would have to come with 3D printing, make my lunch and be able to do windows and floors before I would consider a LG device. They couldn't compete before Nokia was in the game--how on earth do they expect to compete now.

Just wait and see what they bring to the table for the platform. When the first Huyandai's came the the US, they were the joke of the automotive industry. But they kept improving until they got to the top of the class. We might be surprised by what they bring. Be right back. Time for my pill.

I know there are a lot of LG haters around the WP fan sites, but I'm not one of them. I'm still loving my LQ Quantum with it's 16GB of ram and physical keyboard. It's a solid build and keeps on ticking. I'll be replacing it as soon as a decent Lumia comes to my carrier, but it's still serving me well in the meantime.

hahaha these idiots wants come back? They finally realize another Korean company Hewei is having a windows phone also. LG no need we have nokia, Samsung, htc, Hewei. Yeah they notice windows phone is selling like hotcakes.

As an LG 7 owner. I initially love the phone with promise of free apps per month and updates. But after their luck luster sale, they just pretty much abandoned all LG owners. I will never buy anything LG.

LG getting back into the Windows Phone market is great and all, but where is the support (for os updates and the like) for those of us who already have an LG Windows Phone device (like the LG Quantum)?

That's LGs problem. WHo would you see as a safe pair of hands, Nokia who bet the farm on WP, or HTC who seriously joined the WP party with cool stuffs, or LG who will come n go as they please. I like LG gear, and their hardware support here was very good. But their platform support leaves a lot to be desired. Still good to have them back, but they better make the right noises about commitment to the platform - or people will steer well clear of them.

This is good news for everyone, I'm still using an LQ Quantum which is one of the only Windows Phones with a QWERTY keyboard. Even though I don't really use the QWERTY keyboard anymore, for people who write a lot of emails on their phones this is essential. Hoping they will bring out the Quantum 8!

I think LG coming back makes sense. Why not? The Android marketplace is very crowded with tons of new and aging hardware. The WP8 family isn't robust yet, so getting a device out there could sell very well before current OEM's start pushing 2nd generation WP8 hardware later this year. I don't know if I'd invest in one with already owning a Lumia 920, but I wouldn't ignore LG's entry either if they build a competent high-end smartphone for WP lovers to acquire. I hope this comes about.

What I want to know is this: now that LG is going to enter the Windows 8 Phone arena, are they going to update their older Windows 7.x phones to software version 7.8? I've had an LG Quantum Optimus Windows 7.x phone for over two years now and I love it! I was disappointed to read, back in December that LG was not going to enter the Windows 8 market, nor provide the much anticipated update to version 7.8, to it's older devices. I don't want to have to buy a new Windows 8 phone just yet...I like having a compact smart phone that does the job and comfortably fits in a pocket (I don't need a 5" screen to watch movies on...). Please LG, honor your long-standing customer's loyalty...give us the 7.8 update!

Who the F... cares, LG stay with your android it works for you, and also windows phone is having a hard time selling their NOKIA phones (I own a Lumia 800 and it is the best phone I have ever had) I dont think the LG phone is going to sell it all, lets get real